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Last month I attended the Summit, an multi-day event something like a mix of TED and Burning Man for entrepreneurial types. Nearly everyone I spoke to there about the environment described themselves as caring about the environment. Quoting the Summit's site, "The Summit community has a strong history of commitment to conserving our land and ocean natural resources and spaces." On one of its initiatives: "Summit Institute's mission is to apply creative solutions to real-world challenges related to the environment, education, the arts, health and social innovation." One of Summit's pillars is impact. Let's see its long-term impact. First, for context, here is a water fountain I found. Many attendees had passed it, but it was bone dry. This water fountain that many attendees passed…

When I was in junior high school, Philadelphia's Central High School for boys went co-ed. Its former sister school, Girls' High across the street, remains all female. I was in the first class that included girls all four years. Around the same time, Columbia College went co-ed. Barnard College across the street remains all female. The cub scouts and boy scouts of America became co-ed this year. Girl scouts remains all female. I'm not sure the status of all-male clubs at Harvard, but last I heard, the university was trying to close them or force them to admit women. Many women protested that all-female clubs being forced to become co-ed. Are there any all-male institutions that women have not forced their way into? What organizations…

Stewardship is Jethro's core message, as I heard---of his community, especially children in it, his country, and the natural world we share. This world is a beautiful, abundant gift we could wreck if we don't steward it as we know we can. He cares about being an effective steward---not just talk but action. Wait until you hear this Alaskan's commitment to live by this value. WARNING: if you're full of making excuses why you can't act, Jethro's no-complaining, in-service-to-others personal commitment will belie any bogus, self-serving ones. If you came here for more excuses or to reinforce complacency, you won't like Jethro's dedication and commitment. We start on education. Jethro is a school principal active beyond his own school with a national audience. He describes…

As I've been invited to an event called the Summit, I'm going to Los Angeles in early November. That event ends November 5. As I'm taking the train 67 hours each way, I'm inclined to stay longer and make the most of the trip. I'm scheduled to give a couple talks that week at USC and it looks like I'll give another at a private corporation the next week in San Diego. Besides the talks and workshops, I'd like to stick around and take a few surfing lessons. If you're near Los Angeles and would like to see me speak or meet, I don't expect to go there often and would love to connect with people in my community there. Drop me a line and…

Do you care about the environment? Do you care about leading? The Leadership and the Environment podcast NYU's School of Liberal Studies invite you to listen in our first ever Panel of Leadership and Environment Experts which was held on Tuesday, April 3 rd at the NYU Silver Building Free, register here Featuring  Vincent Stanley Vincent, co-author with Yvon Chouinard of The Responsible Company, has been with Patagonia since its beginning in 1973, including executive roles as head of sales or marketing. Informally, he is Patagonia's chief storyteller. He helped develop the Footprint Chronicles, the company's interactive website that outlines the social and environmental impact of its products; the Common Threads Partnership; and Patagonia Books. He serves as the company's Director, Patagonia Philosophy, and is a…

I responded to the question, Hi all, Nearly an year ago, I faced a life-shattering crisis that completely wrecked my world view. Since then I have rebuilt up from scratch, and I have found that a lot of the things that I used to believe were false. Books such as Man's Search for Meaning have been very pivotal in that regard. What books could you recommend for the same? with I'll answer your question first, then suggest something I consider more important, having survived several life-shattering crises. The Tao Te Ching, especially Ron Hogan's translation (freely downloadable here: http://beatrice.com/wordpress/tao-te-ching) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby Getting Things Done, David Allen Gimp, Marc Zupan Thinking in Systems, Donella Meadows Leadership Step by Step, Joshua…

Do you ever check an item off a to-do list that's been there for months? How about for a year or more? Doesn't it feel good? Every now and then I check something off that took me that long---not wasting time, just involving middle steps and dependencies. I don't know if other people track things that long, if it's normal, or what. It feels great. What's the longest you've taken from recording to fulfilling a to-do item?

Vincent shares several stories of Patagonia growing from a few dedicated outdoors people to discovering business growth, the usual ways businesses abandon values besides profit, and their not accepting that abdication of responsibility. The company grew financially, its employees grew emotionally and socially, and its community grew numerically. If you think you're alone in wanting to act, Vincent and Patagonia go farther. Vincent shares how the company made difficult decisions to protect the environment, its employees, its suppliers, their employees, and so on---decisions most people think would hurt companies financially---but didn't. As someone who dislikes many major corporations for what many consider standard business practices, I find in Patagonia and its decision-makers role models we can learn from. Having been there from nearly the start,…

David challenged himself to reduce his meat eating. His result? Right off the bat, he said he found it way better and easier than expected. He felt good and wants to do more. What are you waiting for? Chances are your choice to live by your values will be easier and you'll want to do more---if you act. You'll also hear from David how he made it work---using his community, choosing his beliefs, considering his goals, and so on. He feels physically better. This conversation set a tone for the podcast of finding joy in the change. The value of acting and involving others You might wonder why he didn't change earlier. He knew the issues and felt the motivation before. He's the Science Curator…

David Biello is one of the few people I've met who understands the environmental issues and he's not complaining, he's not talking doom and gloom, but he takes a simple but responsible perspective. Not to say that the solutions are simple. He's very sober about that. He wrote a book called, this is how I met him, he wrote a book called The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age. He also writes for Scientific American. Behind the scenes, he's a science curator for TED. How we met was I read about his book that he said, "We have the money, we have the technology, what we need is motivation." In my language it's a leadership issue. So if you want…

During a book launch, Emily still turned off her computer in a stressful time. Book launches are crazy and people want your time like crazy. She still did it. Despite her defining environmental differently than I expected, her experience was similar. As others found, it's not what you avoid, it's what you replace it with. I didn't hear her describe the experience negatively. Instead I heard her talk about ritual, alignment, values, relationships, family, and other things the experience contributed to. As others found, acting on values leads to finding value and wanting to do more. We also talked about bravery, her just-released book, and the experiences that led to it. Beyond her challenge and book, you'll hear her sign up for another personal challenge.

Dov Baron Dov Baron has been speaking internationally for over 30 years, he's the man with a finger on the pulse of the evolving world of NextGen leadership. Listen to our conversation. One of Inc. Magazine's Top 100 Leadership Speakers to hire, Dov Baron is a master storyteller! Considered by many as the leading authority on Authentic Leadership, and the founder of Full Monty Leadership and The Authentic Speaker Academy for Leadership. Outside of his speaking and training Dov works with multi-disciplinary leaders and executive teams to build the bonds that create organizational cultures that become Fiercely Loyal. Dov is a bestselling author of several books. His latest book is Fiercely Loyal; How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent. He also writes for…

Podcasters ask me for favorite quotes. I answer with the one below a lot. I can't prove it right, but I find it describes what happens when you act remarkably accurately. It's the opposite of analyzing and planning without acting. It tells you that however you plan, acting with resolve will create opportunities and resources beyond what you can plan. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues…

New podcast post: All American Wrestler and Coach, Jim Harshaw, episode 006 Listen to the episode Jim and I have become friends since I did his podcast, Success Through Failure, twice. He's as friendly and approachable as anyone you'll meet, despite or maybe because of his reaching the top levels of one of our most demanding sports. I'll put his description below, but printed words don't express his enthusiastic approach to life and helping others. You can almost hear the excited sparkle in his eyes at what fun and growth he extracts from life and that he enables his clients to. I expect to refer to Jim's episodes more than most, maybe most because how he approaches changing himself is so effective for himself and…

The longer I avoid flying, the more I learn to make my life as rewarding as I want without craving flying. Still, I wonder if I'll see Paris and other places I used to fly to again. If I'll eat Thai food in Thailand. I started looking into hitching rides on cargo ships, but they don't seem economical and they seem to pollute a lot, negating the point of taking one. It's not what you avoid. It's what you replace the void with I started thinking about sailing. At first, even I thought it sounded crazy, but the more I looked it up, the more reasonable and possible it sounded. Not to do a few times a year, but sometimes. More people sail across the…

You're preparing for an appointment. You realize you may be late. Then you realize you can text that you're on your way. You think: keeping them waiting isn't so bad knowing you had a problem and will be a few minutes late. Whew! That was close. You almost faced results for being late but got out of it. When you're texting you'll be late, it feels like a minor get-out-of-jail-free card. But consider the behavior it motivates. The big picture is that texting enables everyone to be late as long as they text on the way, which results in a culture of lateness---more people late more often. Then again, my model that everyone gets fifteen minutes works pretty well.

For all I write about emotional skills, social skills, and keeping calm, sometimes I get furious like anyone else. It's happened a few times recently. Amid overwhelming success, looking back, the book launch had problems. And it was crunch time for over a month. I've worked through plenty of crunch times, but even a lot of experience can't overcome all emotional challenges. You can get angry when you have expectations, people don't meet them, and you don't know why. Then not being able to do anything about an important situation makes the emotions more intense. I tend to post here about successes and to give advice. Not everything goes as expected. I won't bore you with details, but I've been sharing and working through some…

Walking to class today, Martin Luther King Junior Day, I saw this sign on Sixth Avenue, saying, simply, "I'm Sorry. -- White People". It doesn't make sense to me except to judge people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character. Maybe there's some context where it makes sense and doesn't abandon what King called for. Can anyone make more sense of it?